It's the end of the world as we know it

I have an old iPod. The original Video iPod...fifth gen, I think it was? It's served me well, but I haven't listened to it lately. I don't take it with me to school much because the bus is actually too noisy to listen to music. And when I'm at home, I can just listen to my music library on the computer most of the time.

It'd been a while since I turned it on, and okay, I'll admit I probably should have checked on it sooner, and maybe charged it. Never had a problem before, though.

I decided to sync in on my computer today, and it doesn't work. It won't turn on. My computer won't recognize it. It doesn't even give me a low battery signal or anything. Trying to reset it doesn't work.

It hasn't been damaged, so I have to assume it's the battery. Best-case scenario, it's just reached the end of its life. I'm thinking about taking it into the Apple store and seeing if they can do anything about it. I'm not sure if they have batteries for six or seven-year-old iPods, though.

I really don't want to buy a new iPod right now. Doing so is technically an option, but dude, I'm trying to build up my savings.

I've been sick with this ridiculous cough/sore throat/laryngitis/congestion horror since Sunday, and it feels like it's taking forever to get over it. I'll feel like I might be getting better, but then it's a very two steps forward, one step back sort of getting better.

Things I have tried to mitigate my symptoms so I can function:

* Advil Cold and Sinus (possibly effective. It helps with headaches. Might have helped the sore throat when it was really bad).

* Vicks VapoRub (no real effect, except for irritating my skin and being very hard to wash off).

* Swallowing some honey (did it help? No idea. Tasted good, though).

* Hot tea with honey in it (this may have been helpful).

* Cough drops (Meh? I think I might be coughing too much to be able to suck on anything).

I really don't know what to expect come Saturday, which is when I'm next supposed to work. I'm actually expecting that the cough and whatnot will be manageable by then. But I'm concerned about the laryngitis. Holy shit, I feel like I can barely talk. I haven't had laryngitis since I was eight. I think I hate not being able to talk worst of all -- it makes me feel helpless and very annoyed. And I know this cough hasn't helped anything.

All this has put a damper on my last week of classes, too. I'd hoped to be able to actually make the most of the time, since some of my classes have had great discussions. Very little participation from me this week, though. I couldn't even thank my professors even, which I really like to do.

I'm sick. Not horrible-horrible or anything. Just a nasty cold. I started feeling like I was on the verge of it on Monday last week, and I think fatigue just wore me down. That, or I've caught something else. In any case, I started feeling really bad on Saturday night.

It could be worse, in that I least I can breathe for the most part. But I just feel really sick, which is making it hard to do much. This is terrible timing. I've got two assignments, two quizzes, and an exam this week, and then finals next week. I also really wanted to go do something this week and I'm not sure I'll have the energy to go roaming around the city for it.

Also, I can't find oolong tea anywhere. Not in grocery stores, at least. I've got some on hand, but I'm a little scared to drink it and run out. I think I'll have to try the local tea shop. I'd like to have some loose-leaf, anyway.

Some good news: I changed my major! I'm so relieved. I wish I could have made that choice a little sooner, but, well, I've made it now and I'll actually graduate sooner than projected and with (hopefully) less debt. So it's not like I've put myself as a huge disadvantage school-wise. I feel so much more excited for the future, now. I had some ambivalence about giving up engineering, but I didn't want to work in that field, anyway. Now I feel like I have the time and energy to focus on making myself marketable for the types of jobs I do want.

The bad thing is, I'm having a hard time motivating myself for the rest of this semester. Some of my classes have zero bearing on my degree, now, so it's hard to give a crap. I need to, though, so I can keep my GPA up as much as possible. I wish I'd made this decision before the withdrawal deadline, though. I definitely would have dropped circuit analysis if I had.

At least I'm a lot more optimistic about the future. And I'm feeling much less depressed.

This cold needs to fucking go away, though. Seriously. If I didn't have to actually do stuff in a couple of my classes tomorrow, I'd stay home.

Having a spot of computer trouble at the moment, though I think it's getting resolved (I hope!). It wasn't responding or loading anything, and I had to unplug it to get it to restart. Then it started doing a disk cleanup to get rid of corrupted files. And then it was still funky.

I see two possibilities:

1) It has something to do with the issue I'm having with Windows update, where it says it's installing updates when I shut down my computer, but never actually finishes/freezes up/who knows what. That had happened again just prior to this problem.

2) It has something to do with the Firefox update I downloaded this afternoon.

I'm leaning towards the latter. When I first restarted, the computer was behaving well enough until I tried opening Firefox. And it seems to be doing fine now that I've uninstalled it. But I'm running a virus scan too just in case, and I'm trying to find a solution to the Windows Update problem, because even if that's not what fucked things up, I should probably still try to get it working right.

In the meantime, I have a browser dilemma. I've been using Firefox for a few years now, and I've grown quite fond of it. For one thing, I never realized how much I took adblock for granted. I'm on Chrome now and am amazed to actually see these ads on LJ I've heard people mention.

So, do I:

1) Try to get Firefox back, maybe an earlier version.
2) Try out Chrome some more (it looks okay, but I'm finding it tricky to figure out).
3) Use Internet Explorer (which I hate. But maybe if I use it more, I'll see some actual advantages to it?).
4) Go back to using MSN Explorer (which I like better than IE, but not by much. Pro is that I can easily access my MSN email).

A few days ago, I re-watched an episode of Doctor Who from RTD's time. It reminded me, again, of how much I liked RTD's inclusion of gay and lesbian background characters, and how much I took it for granted at the time.

I don't like everything about RTD's characterization, or even all his depictions of queer characters. But I did like how he made the world of Doctor Who a place where some people were gay. I liked it even better for the fact that Doctor Who is traditionally a family show that's been liked by a lot of children.

I don't think fiction is the best means for young people to get an idea of how the world works. I don't expect fiction to always present an ideal. But it does influence us. It does help teach us what the world is like. And it does reflect the society that creates it.

I'm fortunate. I grew up in a fairly accepting household. I'm also fortunate to have learned young that it's possible to be queer, and to have learned that without any judgment attached.

Even so, I've grown up in a very heteronormative world. When I was a kid, I didn't have any openly gay friends or family members. Everyone seems to take for granted that I'm straight. That is, since I'm read as female, I'll get comments from acquaintances about "when I have a husband." I've been asked if I have a boyfriend. No one has ever added "...or a girlfriend?"

Growing up, I saw countless representations of heterosexuality on TV and in movies. I can't remember the first time I saw straight romance and sexuality depicted on screen. I can remember the first time I saw an openly gay character in film (it was Philadelphia, which I saw on cable when I was around 11).

One of harder things for me, when I came out to myself, was that I'd never had any model or example for being queer, real or fictional.

But I wonder if, to some extent, it's more natural to create queer characters if you're queer yourself. Otherwise, maybe it's not something you consider. Maybe it doesn't occur to you to have some of your background characters be gay.

I don't buy that totally, though, because there are straight people who write queer characters or who are aware of representation (or the lack of it). And it seems like such a simple thing to me, in today's world, to have a character be gay.